HERTFORDSHIRE, England, and PITTSBURGH — Mylan N.V. has tabbed GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare veteran Ranjan Ray Chaudhuri to serve as global commercial lead of Mylan’s over-the-counter business.

Ranjan Chaudhuri

Chaudhuri will report to Rajiv Malik, president of Mylan.

“The opportunity to build upon Mylan’s one-of-a-kind global platform and contribute to the organization’s ongoing evolution is tremendously exciting to me,” Chaudhuri said in a statement. “I look forward to bringing to Mylan all that I have learned over the years to help further distinguish it as one of the world’s great companies.”

Chaudhuri served for nearly three decades at GSK Consumer Healthcare. At the company, he was responsible for the global smoking reduction and cessation category, which included NiQuitin and other nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), and helped turn around the business, delivering double-digit revenue growth, according to Mylan.

He also led the development of a program designed to improve the quality of life of COPD patients by leveraging NRTs along with other GSK respiratory products, such as Advair and Seretide.

Prior to that, Chaudhuri served as innovation director for GSK’s Smoking Control and Cold Sore franchises, driving double-digit sales growth in the latter via product launches and creative advertising. Mylan noted that he also recently led the divestiture of an OTC portfolio of NRT products to Perrigo, a move prompted by GSK’s formation of a consumer health care joint venture with Novartis.

“We are committed to investing significantly to expand our OTC business, knowing that OTC is an important channel that will complement our existing strengths in the prescription and generic channels around the world,” stated Mylan chief executive officer Heather Bresch. “This is why we believe our combination with the Perrigo and Omega platforms presents such a compelling opportunity to accelerate our efforts.”

According to Malik, Chaudhuri joins Mylan “at an opportune time” and brings deep knowledge of the OTC space, sales and marketing leadership, experience in developed and emerging markets, and a proven track record.

“He will work closely with me and my colleagues at the global level, as well as others, within both Mylan’s and Perrigo’s commercial structures, to further realize the combination’s commercial value should we complete the Perrigo transaction,” Malik commented.

Earlier in his career with GSK Consumer Healthcare, Chaudhuri served in a variety of capacities, including global head of e-marketing, a function he launched; head of strategic planning for North America; and global director of analgesics category management, during which time he drove the growth of Panadol, GSK’s leading analgesic brand, in multiple regions, Mylan said.

In addition, Chaudhuri served in various sales and marketing leadership positions and helped grow the revenue and share of products such as Panadol, nutritional drinks Horlicks and Boost, and hair-styling agent Brylcreem, according to Mylan. He started his career at Unilever, selling Lipton tea in India.